Cartridge for hand firing



June 2, 1970 s. M. WHITE ETAL 3,515,069

CARTRIDGE FOR HAND FIRING Filed July 1, 1968 INVENTORS Stanley M. White Woodrow W. Reeves United States Patent 3,515,069 CARTRIDGE FOR HAND FIRING Stanley M. White, North East, and Woodrow W. Reaves,

Baltimore, Md., assignors to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army Filed July 1, 1968, Ser. No. 741,693 Int. Cl. C06d 1/04, 1/10; F42b 13/40 US. Cl. 10237.4 13 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A munition for delivering a payload to a target comprising a container means for said payload, case means to house said container, powder charge means to eject said container from said case means, means to ignite said powder charge, and cap means over the open end of said case means.

The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensed by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to use of any royalty thereon.

Our invention relates to a munition which is utilized to deliver a projectile, smoke composition, explosive composition, incendiary composition, or agent composition to a target without utilizing any discharging weapon such as pistols, rifles, or any auxiliary equipment.

The problem has existed for military purposes and civilian riot control to develop a compact munition which could be discharged without utilizing some type of weapon or weapon system, and our invention has been conceived and reduced to practice to solve the compact munition problem.

A principal object of our invention is to provide a munition which can be discharged without the use of any discharging weapon.

Another object of our invention is to provide a munition, which can be discharged without the use of any discharging weapon, which is compact and can be safely, conveniently, and quickly discharged from the users hands.

Other objects of our invention will be obvious or will appear from the specification hereinafter set forth.

FIG. 1 is a view of the means utilized to both close our munition on storage and to discharge our munition.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of our munition in the stored or unarmed state.

FIG. 3 is a view showing the payload container of the munition in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the container shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is another payload container embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the embodiment in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a further payload container embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of the embodiment in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a view showing the utility of our munition.

Our invention as shown in FIGS. 1 to 8 will now be described in detail as follows:

Container 1, made of rubber or any other material which is not chemically reactive with the container contents and adaptable to the munition utility, which has a closed end 22 and open end 15, is filled with any material which is desired to be delivered to a target area as a payload; such as a chemical smoke mix, incendiary mix, explosive mix, or incapacitating agent composition. After container 1 is filled, a conventional time delay fuse 12 is fixedly mounted in open end 15 by any conventional means. When container 1 is made of rubber, fuse 12 is mounted within open end 15 by a conventional hose clamp 13, such as an automobile radiator hose clamp. When container 1 is made of metal, fuse 12 is fixedly mounted within open end 15 by conventional means such as brazing, welding, thread means, adhesive, etc. Adhesive means can be used for any material of which container 1 is manufactured. Following closure of container 1 by fuse 12, annular felt pad 17 and fire resistant insulating disc 18 is placed over and surrounding neck 23 by means of a hole in the center of structures 17 and 18 and container 1 is inserted within case 3 which has an open end closed end 9; container 1 end 15 with fuze 12 mounted therein being located adjacent to closed end 9 of case 3. Case 3 can be made of any convenient material which is suitable for the utility of the munition, but it is preferably made of aluminum of approximately 0.046" thickness. Pad 17 and disc 18 function to seal vent hole 14 and prevent ignition of the pyrotechnic or explosive mix 2 in container 1 upon ignition of delay fuse 12. Vent hole 14 is provided in container 1 to permit the escape of gas, smoke, liquid droplets, or aerosol cloud payload upon ignition of the pyrotechnic or explosive mix within the container, and the vent hole can be of any suitable size for the utility. Closed end 9 has a counter sunk hole, not shown in the drawing, within which a conventional primer 10 is mounted in the usual art manner, such as by brazing means. Case 3 is provided with a cap 4 for insertion over the open end of the case during storage. For storage purposes, container 1 is provided with a recess 8 to house striker 7 which is fixedly mounted within cap 4 by any conventional means, such as brazing. To discharge our munition, cap 4 is removed from the open end of case 3, placed over closed end 9 of case 3, and struck by hand as shown in FIG. 9. Upon striking cap 4 as shown in FIG. 9, striker 7 discharges primer 10, and fire from the discharged primer ignites black powder 11 located in contact with primer 10. Ignition of black powder 11 serves to eject container 1 from case 3 and to ignite delay fuse 12. Black powder 11 load and time of delay of fuse 12 are adjustable within the skill of the art to attain whatever range is desired for the munitions. Thickness and material of case 3 are also adjustable within the skill of the art in accordance with the safety requirements necessitated by any given explosive load. Time of delay of fuse 12 is selected so that the pyrotechnic or explosive mix within container 1 is not ignited by fuse 12 until our munition is approximately on target. Closed end 9 of case 3 is provided with an annular recess 6. Spring 5 is fixedly mounted by any conventional means, such as a rivet 16, within cap 4. Spring 5 is provided as a safety means to prevent accidental dis charge of primer 10 by striker 7 until our munition is aimed and struck as shown in FIG. 9. Whenever it is desired to disseminate an incapacitating agent or chemical smoke, such agent or smoke generation chemical composition is mixed with the pyrotechnic or explosive chemical and loaded into container 1. When vent holes 14 are provided a conventional pyrotechnic chemical is included in mix 2 within container 1 to generate gas to expel the smoke produced within the mix or the incapacitating agent within the mix. Any conventional smoke chemical composition or incapacitating agent composition can be incorporated into mix 2 by conventional mixing techniques. Alternatively, vent holes 14 need not be provided, but any conventional explosive chemical composition can be incorporated into mix 2 by the conventional mixing mode. When an explosive composition is incorporated into the mix, container 1 is destroyed upon detonation of the explosive component, and the smoke generated by the smoke component or the toxic agent composition is disseminated upon destruction of the container. Alternatively, if one should desire dissemination over a larger area, a plurality of module containers, such as 19 and 20 in FIGS. 5 and 7 respectively, can be arranged Within case 3 rather than a single container, as 1 in FIG. 1. In the case of modules arranged as in FIG. 5, it is necessary to connect each module by a conventional pyro fuse 21 in order to ignite the payload in each module. While our munition is designed to be hand fired, it is well within the skill of the art to adjust the size of our munition to fit any caliber discharging weapon in order to increase the range of the munition.

It is obvious that other modifications can be made of our invention.

We claim:

1. A munition comprising a non-disposable case means having an open end and a closed end; container means located within said case means, said container having an open end and a closed end; fuse means mounted within the open end of said container means; primer means fixedly mounted Within the closed end of said case means; powder charge means located within the case means ad jacent to said primer means; cap means covering the open end of said case means, said cap means containing a spring means fixedly mounted thereon to removably friction fit the cap means over the case means closed end, said spring means being mounted by rivet means; primer discharge means fixedly mounted within said cap means; and payload means located within said container means.

2. The munition of claim 1 wherein said container means is made of rubber.

3. The munition of claim 2 wherein the fuse means is fixedly mounted within said container means by a hose clamp means.

4. The munition of claim 1 wherein the powder charge means is located between the primer and the fuse means and is adapted to eject the container from the case means and to ignite said fuse means.

5. The munition of claim 4 wherein the fuse means is a delay fuse means adapted to ignite the payload means.

6. The munition of claim 1 wherein the primer discharge means is a striker.

7. The munition of claim 1 wherein said payload means contains a pyrotechnic chemical material.

8. The munition of claim 7 wherein the payload means contains material selected from the group consisting of smoke generation chemical composition, incapacitating agent composition, incendiary composition, and projectile composition.

9. The munition of claim 8 wherein the payload means contains explosive chemical material.

10. The munition of claim 7 wherein the container is provided with at least one vent hole means.

11. The munition of claim 10 wherein the payload means contains a chemical material selected from the group consisting of smoke generation composition and incapacitating agent composition.

12. The munition of claim 1 wherein the container means is a plurality of containers.

13. A method of disseminating material selected from the group consisting of smoke generation composition and incapacitating a-gent composition comprising the steps of filling a container means with said material, said container means having an open end and a closed end; in serting a fuse means Within the open end of said container means; inserting said container means within a non-disposable case means, said non-disposable case means having an open end and a closed end, said closed end having a primer means fixedly mounted therein and a powder charge means being adjacent to said primer means; removing a cap means from the non-disposable case means open end; placing the cap means over said non-disposable case means closed end to removably friction fit the cap means over the non-disposable case means closed end, said cap means having a primer discharge means fixedly mounted therein; striking the cap means with one hand while grasping the case means with the other hand to discharge the primer means; and discharging said primer means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,770,921 7/1930 Hitt 102-37.8 X 2,436,751 2/1948 Ha-mmell et al. 10237.6 2,519,123 8/1950 Dwyer et a1. 102-35.6 2,785,632. 3/1957 Clauser et al. 10235.6 3,266,372 8/1966 Mack et al. 102-376 X ROBERT F. STAHL, Primary Examiner 

